Margot Robbie admitted that she focused intensely on preparing her characters.
The Australian actress told Cillian Murphy in a conversation for Variety's Actors on Actors series that she tries to prepare as much as possible before filming a film.
However, during the Covid-19 lockdown she took her preparation a little too far.
“I also prepare like a psychopath. “I’m preparing for as long as I can,” she began. I remember I started preparing for a role and then Covid came and so I ended up preparing for that one role for about a year. At the end I felt like I was losing my mind.”
“My husband (Tom Ackerley) came in and I was making weird masks and weird stuff and I was covered in paint and he asked me, 'What are you doing?' “I think I went too far with this character,” I replied. That must have an end. I have to get to set.”
The Wolf of Wall Street star filmed Amsterdam and Babylon in 2021 post-pandemic. This latest film, directed by Damien Chazelle, was originally scheduled to film in mid-2020.
The 33-year-old actress explained that she also covers her scripts with “a billion notes and thoughts” to keep her mind clear on set.
“Because then I can arrive on set and be completely free. But if I hadn't been prepared, I would have been so scared, she explained. (If I didn't have a narrated script), I would have all these thoughts on set instead of being free.”
Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy interviewed each other following the Barbenheimer craze sparked by their films Barbie and Oppenheimer this summer.